Sky Sports presenter Simon Thomas made an emotional return to the TV screens today as he appeared on This Morning to recall the death of his wife.
Mr Thomas, 45, lived happily in the Berkshire home he shared with his wife Gemma, 40, and their eight-year-old son Ethan until her untimely death in November last year.
Mrs Thomas was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia and died ‘surrounded by her family and friends’ three days later.
In his first TV appearance since her death – and wearing his wife’s wedding ring – he reduced hosts Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield to tears as he spoke about the moment he had to tell Ethan that his mother had died.
Sky Sports presenter Simon Thomas wore his wife’s wedding ring on his finger on the show
In his first TV appearance since her death – and wearing his wife’s wedding ring – he reduced hosts Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield to tears as he spoke about the moment he had to tell Ethan that his mother had died
Mr Thomas, 45, lived happily in the Berkshire home he shared with his wife Gemma, 40, and their eight-year-old son Ethan until her untimely death in November last year
This Morning presenters Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield were reduced to tears in the interview
He told the ITV show: ‘I left the hospital. I woke up every patient there and I screamed at God “why have you left my boy without a mum?”.
‘I thought I’ve got to go home and tell him his mum’s gone. What I didn’t give him credit for is that kids – they develop so much in 18 months. My heart was pounding. I didn’t tell Ethan that she was going, I just told him “mummy is seriously ill”.
‘I took him through and I held him to her ear. He said he loved her and then he went to play with his cousins.
‘I thought I’ve got to tell him so I took him upstairs and looked into his deep brown eyes and said “Ethan I’m really sorry – they couldn’t make mummy better”. And I couldn’t dress it up – I said “mummy’s died”.
‘He collapsed onto the floor and I did too and I just held him. I rolled on the floor with him. I would never ever wish that on my worst enemy.’
Holly and Phil had to pause the interview for a short after becoming overcome with emotion.
The pair grabbed tissues from the coffee table to wipe their tears away.
Sky Sports presenter Simon Thomas made an emotional return to the TV screens today as he appeared on This Morning to recall the death of his wife
Holly Willoughby was overcome with emotion as Simon Thomas gave his first TV interview following the death of his wife, Gemma
Mr Thomas also revealed he was initially angry wife their GP for not spotting the cancer signs earlier.
But last week he met with the doctor to talk it over with him and clear the air.
He said: ‘She’d had headaches for a few weeks. I did say a few times to her ‘this headache is going on for a while and you need to go to the doctor’.
‘We actually had a joint appointment, mainly for medication for my depression. She came in and I said ‘look she’s been having these headaches for a while, are you worried?’
Mr Thomas (right) said it was especially difficult for their son Ethan, left, who desperately misses his mother, especially during important periods of his life
Mr Thomas (right) said it was hard for Ethan because he has lost his mother and is an only child
‘And he said – and I completely understand this – “a lot of it is down to the stress as she is stressed about you”.
‘By the Friday she was really quite bad – and women do ill better than men. But for her to be in bed the whole time was unusual and by Friday she went back to the doctors. He checked her over.
‘And I can understand why he didn’t think anything was wrong – they were quite general symptoms. She had a headache and felt a bit fluey. But she spent the whole of that weekend in bed.
‘And she went back to the doctors on Monday. And I think it’s quite important I say this because I had a lot of anger towards our GP initially but I’ve since sat down with him last week and talked to him.
Mr Thomas said his son really missed his mother when he was a mascot at Norwich FC
‘I spoke to Dr Andy here and he told me that had she gone in 24 hours earlier, had he sent her to hospital that Monday – it wouldn’t have made any difference to the outcome that happened on the Friday.
‘That gave me a sense of weight coming off my shoulders in terms of the doctor. I wanted to sit down with him and say “what did she say?” because she, being Gemma – which is always putting others before herself – insisted at 9am that morning I went to my councillor for my depression. Even though she had been so ill over the weekend.
‘He told me what she said and she never told him that she’d been in bed all weekend. She didn’t tell him that she was exhausted walking three steps from our bed to the bathroom.
‘Had I been there I would have said that. But I was able to say to him “I’m sorry that I was angry with you. You were acting on only what you saw and what she told. Look I bear you no grudge” and I gave him a big hug.’
Mr Thomas continued that when they went to hospital, his world came crashing down when she was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia
Mr Thomas was joined by Gemma’s consultant Dr Andy Peniket who explained more about the illness
Mr Thomas continued that when they went to hospital, his world came crashing down when she was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia.
‘On the Monday night at the Royal Berkshire [hospital]… I fainted. We knew it was a blood cancer of some sort, it’s a leukaemia of some sort… we thought we are probably ok, people get better from this. It all cart wheeled quite quickly.’
Mr Thomas took his son to school to try and keep things as normal as possible but while he was travelling back to the Royal Berkshire, he received a text saying she was being transferred to Oxford for immediate treatment.
The couple were then told her chances of survival were 50/50 and she was given chemotherapy.
He said: ‘That’s a hammer blow. But actually you look at it and think there’s 50 per cent chance that she will get better. That’s what you go for. It was encouraging. The white blood cell count was coming down.
‘My last conversation with her (taking her to the loo), when you hear of people getting ill and being told they have weeks or months to live you have those chances to talk about it to try and at least get your head round it and have those final conversations.
‘I never had that. I took her to the loo at 4.30 in the morning, she had been perfectly fine the night before.
‘Over that night she became more and more confused. I put her back in to bed at about 4.30am.
‘That was the last time I spoke to her. I thought she was going to sleep but as I found out she was falling unconscious and I never had the chance to even say goodbye.’
He concluded: ‘Plan A was shredded. I’m just trying to work out how to say goodbye to Plan A. How do you move on? You can’t just move on. There is so much to process. When I’m ready to move on… then I’ll look at Plan B.’
He added some people didn’t know what to say to him in the aftermath.
He said: ‘Some don’t want to get it wrong, so they stay quiet. I wanted to let people know.’
He admitted this would be tough for himself and his son to move on but when the time is right he is going to raise money for charity in his wife’s memory.
‘I have to do something in the memory of Gemma.’
Mr Thomas was joined by Gemma’s consultant Dr Andy Peniket who explained more about the illness.